1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output control device for a vehicle, which suppresses the output of a drive power source such as an engine in the case where an accelerator operation and a brake operation of a vehicle are performed at the same time, and particularly, to an output control device for a vehicle, which performs appropriate output suppression control to which the intention of a driver is reflected.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a known brake priority (brake override) control that suppresses the engine output in order to stop the vehicle safely in the case, for example, where a driver accidentally presses down on an accelerator pedal and a brake pedal at the same time, or the accelerator pedal does not return to its normal position due to a problem.
For example, to date, there has been known a safety device that suppresses the output of the engine according to the state of a brake switch that is turned on when the brake pedal is pressed down. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2005-291030 describes a vehicle safety device that forces the engine to enter an idle state regardless of the depression amount of an accelerator pedal when the pressing-down of the brake pedal, or the brake operating pressure is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.
However, depending on the running condition of a vehicle, a driver may perform an accelerator operation and a brake operation at the same time intentionally. For example, when a driver stops the vehicle while driving on a steep slope, the driver may press-down the brake pedal temporarily with the left foot without releasing the right foot on the accelerator pedal in order to prevent the vehicle from rolling backward. In a sports running mode, when a driver performing a downshift operation of a manual transmission during a braking operation, the driver may perform a heel-and-toe operation for pressing down the accelerator pedal for a very short time in order to increase the number of revolutions of the engine in response to the gear ratio after the downshift. In addition, during cornering, a driver may perform a brake operation with the left foot for a short time in order to control the posture of the vehicle to shift the vehicle load. In this case, the above-described conventional technology suppresses the output of the engine against the intention of the driver.